Premier Bracks Mk II: new, sharper, bolder?

February 26 2003

With a clear majority in both houses, Labor now has no reason to show timidity.

The 122 members of the Victorian Parliament have had the opportunity to enjoy a long and relaxing summer, but all good things must come to an end. Yesterday, 86 days after the state election, they returned to the political coalface, gathering in the plush red of the Legislative Council and the egalitarian green of the Legislative Assembly to embark on the second term of the Bracks era.

This parliament marks a historical high point for the Labor Party. For the first time, Labor has sustained control of the upper house. And, almost as importantly, it commands a massive majority in the lower house; 62 of the 88 members who filed into the chamber yesterday hail from the ALP. Even the landslide victory scored by the Liberal-National Coalition led by Jeff Kennett in 1992 did not yield that many seats.

There are two ways for Labor to respond to what has happened. It can take the easy course and assume that the massive vote it picked up on November 30 was an endorsement of the cautious, unremarkable, gradualist form of government delivered by the Bracks administration. In other words, it could decide to serve up more of the same. Or it can see the show of support from most voters as a one-off, an opportunity offered up by voters for Labor to grasp the nettle and do some bold things. We would prefer the government to take the latter view.

All governments have a finite life and Labor would do well to make the most of its chances while it can. It has an agenda and it has control of the parliament, so what is there to stop the ALP from demonstrating its talents as a prudent and imaginative administrator of the state? Nothing.

As it is, the government should look seriously at its approach to the general issue of transparency and its tendency to rely on spin during its first term. Freedom of information requests are now prohibitively priced; the system needs to be reformed again, to become cheaper, less restricted and easier to use. As for Labor's use of spin, it might have worked when the parliamentary contest was tight, but with the numbers on its side it is more likely to be seen as arrogance.

On the other side of the Speaker, different challenges are faced by the rump - it is not out of place to refer to it that way - of Liberal and National MPs who survived the election rout.

Liberal leader Robert Doyle is flanked by only 16 party colleagues. The Liberals are now at their lowest ebb in Victoria in 50 years. Like Labor, the Liberals face a choice: luxuriate in endless factional and personal bickering or take the hard road to internal and policy reform.

Only by choosing reform can the Liberals gradually restore their standing within the broader electorate, and only by debating and then settling on policy directions can they hope to give the Labor monolith they face in the parliament every day a run for its money.